A lot of things have changed in the world of business since the start of COVID-19. Besides the fact that many companies, firms and businesses had to close their doors, temporarily or permanently, the organisation of work has been altered.
Instead of working from the offices, many employees have been asked to work from home. As remote work is still going on to this day, companies are facing new issues: trust! How can you be certain that your employees are doing the said work and staying productive while working remotely? Here are a couple of ways that can help you improve their performance, even if they don’t work in the office!
1. Clear roles and reachable goals
If you want your team to improve its performance and increase effectiveness, you have to assign clear roles and set reachable goals. What does that mean? Your employees need to have their roles cleared up. They need to know what their tasks are and what is expected from them unless you want complete confusion and increased stress levels in your team.
Similarly, you need to assign them clear tasks and set reachable goals. Goals and tasks need to be moderate. If they are too easy, there will be no satisfaction in doing them. On the other hand, if the goals are hard to reach or tasks are too complicated, chances are your employees will lose confidence, start feeling inadequate or even give up!
2. Celebrate small victories
You can’t expect to achieve major success overnight. Hard work and dedication are essential. So, try to achieve your goals one step at a time. The best way to do so is to break up your main goals into a couple of smaller ones and use SMART measurements to get results as precise as possible. But what can you do to make it all happen?
Celebrate small victories! Even the smallest step towards your goal is a victory. Don’t forget to congratulate your team and show them that you appreciate and value their effort. Once a milestone is reached, don’t forget to reward your employees. It doesn’t have to be a monetary reward. Think about benefits and bonuses they’d like to receive and start from there.
3. Encourage knowledge sharing
Knowledge is beautiful. What’s the point of keeping it to yourself? One of the best things you can do is share it with others! As your team is likely composed out of people of different profiles and backgrounds, encourage knowledge and experience sharing. How can you do that?
Offer a lot of learning opportunities and therefore, motivate individuals to engage in such conversations. If some of your employees undergo training, advise them to do a presentation on new things and skills they’ve learnt. It can be useful for the entire team!
4. Provide feedback and review
Amongst growth and learning opportunities and rewards, your employees will be motivated by feedback. Did you know that feedback and work review are crucial components of employee satisfaction? So, if you want to improve your team’s performance, be ready to criticise and praise their work so they can improve it!
Feedback can also be fantastic for work structure. If your employees are uncertain whether they are working in the right direction, feedback can provide them with a kick start. It can also improve their work ethics and teach them how to handle criticism and failure.
5. Work on the company’s image and loyalty
How can a company’s image boost your employees’ performance? Believe it or not, if employees perceive the company they work in as one of higher status, they will be more dedicated to work, which will, sooner or later, lead to increased efficiency! But how can you improve the company’s image and loyalty?
To build a company’s reputation, treat your employees with respect. Also, use social media to build brand image and create the status you’d like to have. Increase loyalty by making your employees feel important and needed in the team. Don’t act like they are replaceable, because you’ll realise, they are not!
6. Motivate and empower
As a team leader, your main task is to ensure your employees are giving their all. Sadly, since they are working from home, you can’t be certain whether they are trying hard or hardly trying! It’s up to you to try your best to motivate them and empower them so they can approach tasks respectfully. How can you do that?
Be their cheerleader! Besides celebrating small victories, be there for them when they are feeling down. Coronavirus and remote work are sudden changes for everyone. They may feel isolated which can affect their performance. Build a trustworthy relationship so they can be certain you can help them overcome difficult periods in life and continue working effectively.
7. Improve connection and communication
To ensure the safe and sound implementation of mentioned strategies, you need to build trustworthy and reliable communication with your employees. Even though you’re not in the same room or building, you still need to communicate daily and engage in work projects, share files or simply chat.
To keep your employees connected and involved, install employee engagement software on every phone. That will make communication and sharing ideas much easier. On top of that, such connection combats loneliness and isolation and keeps your employees up to date. Such an app will improve their effectiveness and boost performance as they will be able to access needed information or people straight away!
8. Prioritise wellbeing
Did you know that mental and physical wellbeing are vital for performance? You surely know how hard it is to focus when you’re feeling unwell mentally or physically. That’s why you need to prioritise wellbeing when it comes to your employees.
If you care about their overall health, they are more likely to put more effort into work, which results in increased performances. Pay special attention to work-life balance. Just because they are working from home doesn’t mean that their home is their workspace! Work-life balance is essential for a healthier body and mind.
Conclusion
Even though it doesn’t seem easy, increasing your remote team’s performance is possible. You have to pay additional attention to the way they work and provide them with more thorough feedback to improve their competencies. So, work on building trust and reliable communication, which will help you run the team more effectively.
